1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cable assembly, more particularly to a cable assembly with enhanced mechanical interconnection means arranged between an electrical connector and a cable thereof to reinforce physical or mechanical connection therebetween.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, personal computers (PC) are used of a variety of techniques for transmitting data between different devices. Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a standard to the PC architecture with a focus on computer telephony interface, consumer and productivity applications. The design of USB is standardized by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), an industry standard body incorporating leading companies from the computer and electronic industries. USB can be interconnected to peripherals such as mouse devices, keyboards, PDAs, gamepads and joysticks, scanners, digital cameras, printers, external storage, networking components, etc. For many devices such as scanners and digital cameras, USB also has become the standard connection interface.
USB supports three data rates: 1) A Low Speed rate of up to 1.5 Mbit/s (187.5 KB/s) that is mostly used for Human Interface Devices (HID) such as keyboards, mice, and joysticks; 2) A Full Speed rate of up to 12 Mbit/s (1.5 MB/s). Full Speed was the fastest rate before the USB 2.0 specification and many devices fall back to Full Speed. Full Speed devices divide the USB bandwidth between them in a first-come first-served basis and it is not uncommon to run out of bandwidth with several isochronous devices. All USB Hubs support Full Speed. 3) Hi-Speed rate of up to 480 Mbit/s (60 MB/s). Though Hi-Speed devices are advertised as “up to 480 Mbit/s”, not all USB 2.0 devices can run at such Hi-Speed. Hi-Speed devices typically only operate at half of the full theoretical (60 MB/s) data throughput rate. Most Hi-Speed USB devices typically operate at much slower speeds, often about 3 MB/s overall, sometimes up to 10-20 MB/s. A data transmission rate at 20 MB/s is sufficient for some but not all applications. However, under a circumstance transmitting an audio or video file, which is always up to hundreds MB, even to 1 or 2 GB, currently transmission rate of USB is not sufficient. As a consequence, faster serial-bus interfaces are being introduced to address different requirements. PCI Express, at 2.5 GB/s, and SATA, at 1.5 GB/s and 3.0 GB/s, are two examples of High-Speed serial bus interfaces.
From an electrical standpoint, the higher data transfer rates of the non-USB protocols discussed above are highly desirable for certain applications. However, these non-USB protocols are not used as broadly as USB protocols. Many portable devices are equipped with USB connectors other than these non-USB connectors. One important reason is that these non-USB connectors contain a greater number of signal pins than an existing USB connector and are physically larger as well. For example, while the PCI Express is useful for its higher possible data rates, a 26-pin connectors and wider card-like form factor limit the use of Express Cards. For another example, SATA uses two connectors, one 7-pin connector for signals and another 15-pin connector for power. Due to its clumsiness, SATA is more useful for internal storage expansion than for external peripherals.
The existing USB connectors have a compact size but low transmission rate, while other non-USB connectors (PCI Express, SATA, et al) have a high transmission rate but bulky size. Neither of them is desirable to implement modern high-speed, miniaturized electronic devices and peripherals. To provide a kind of connector with a compact size and a high transmission rate for portability and high data transmitting efficiency is therefore much desirable from the market.
In recent years, more and more electronic devices are adopted for working as an optical transmitter. It may be good idea to design a connector which is capable of transmitting both an electrical signal and an optical signal. Someone has begun to conceive such kind of connector which is compatible of transmitting both the electrical and optical signals. The connector includes metallic contacts assembled to an insulated housing and several optical lenses bundled together and mounted to the housing too. A kind of hybrid cable includes wires and optical fibers are respectively attached to the metallic contacts and the optical lenses so as to facilitate electrical and optical signal transmission.
Nevertheless, the optical fibers are vulnerable for different damages, and a reliable and robust mechanical interconnection between the connector and the hybrid cables are therefore needed.